<p><LINK href="notes.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css"> <SPAN class="big"> Genre Balkanization -- FogCon 2012</span> <span class="dateline">30.03.2012 16.30h</span></p>
<ul class="taglist">
<li class="tags">
Genres
</li>
<li class="tags">
Literature
</li>
<li class="tags">
Genre Fragmentation
</li>
</ul>
<BR/>
<h2 id="genre-fragmentation">Genre Fragmentation</h2>
<DIV class="intro">
Subgenres are flourishing, and a reader may be dedicated to vampire romance, steampunk, space opera, monster-hunting adventure, or many others. What does it imply for the genre and for fandom?
</DIV>

<DIV class="panelists">
<ul>
<li>Carolyn Cooper (Moderator)</li>
<li>Shannon Page</li>
<li>Keffy R.M. Kehri</li>
<li>Nick Mamatas
</DIV>
</li>
</ul>
<h3 id="notes">Notes</h3>
<div class="notes">


<p>Is Balkanization Good, Bad, or Neutral?</p>
<p>( Also note that 'Balkanization' is perjorative against a region of Southeastern Europe ).</p>
<p>It is good marketing. It is bad if you cannot categorize a book.</p>
<p>What does genre mean? Compelling stories. Marketing Catgories &lt;=&gt; literary categories.</p>
<p>Identified / tied too closely, can limit the audience, and confuse or irrate a previous audience for a writer's works. Many of an author's readers will continue to claim him/her even if the writer changes.</p>
<p>Is genre driven by consumers or marketing? Both</p>
<p><a href="http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2004/04/05/040405fi_fiction">Letham, Jonathan. Super Goat Man</a></p>
<p>Impace of Social media and online discussions.</p>
<p>When someone looks for a specific type of fiction, usually only the works of writers previously associated with that genre will get mentioned.</p>
<h2 id="the-amazon-effect">The Amazon Effect</h2>
<p>People read the reviews before buying, even if they don't buy from Amazon. Tagging might be good, but in practice it is often only good in Sarcasm.</p>
<p><a href="http://leasthelpful.com/">The internet's worst reviewers</a></p>
<p>Thanks to the internet, whatever you want reach you can find it, which makes for ever more specific subgenres. People follow writers over genres.</p>
<p>As an author, you can write <em>anything</em> and find a readership.</p>
<p>The curation of the selection is the greatest value provided by a bookshop.</p>
Contextual ads can provide value, but often miss (by a lot).
</DIV>
<div class="bibliography">
<ul>
<li><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Drop-City-T-C-Boyle/dp/0670031720">Boyle, T.C. Drop City</a>
</DIV>
<DIV class="notes">
There's a limitation on 'thumbs up'/'thumbs down' rating, it is binary and has no shades of gray, also there's no indication on the <em>why</em> of the vote.</li>
</ul>
<p>&quot;I've read it all, I want good writing.&quot;</p>
<p>People have gotten pickier with greater choice, they want what they want -- more of the same.</p>
<p>Genre is a shortcut to knowing &quot;what's inside&quot;</p>
<p>Discussion of &quot;mind candy&quot; -- light reads</p>
<p>How does tagging build better relationships? Writers can write what they want -- and works can have multiple tags.</p>
<p>Some people will go after the big trends.</p>
<p>The following did NOT come from NYC big pulishing houses: * Urban Fiction -- sellling 25k-50k * Romantica -- porn romance (which is often interstitial) * Manga</p>
<p>We will see more not from NY in the future. They are not agile and quick to respond to changes in the publishing industry.</p>
Writer's biggest threat is obscurity.
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